Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bridal Suite

Talk to any professional artist or designer you can find (seedy bars and discount grocery stores are good places to look) and chances are they will agree that inspiration is probably the most misunderstood ingredient in the murky chowder of creativity.

In movies, inspiration looks much like the manic half of manic depression. The artist runs amok in montage, flinging paint around in a large, white studio while loud bits of Mahler (or possibly the Pointer Sisters singing "I'm So Excited") flood the soundtrack. He is hyperkinetic, unfettered, unstoppable. He is not the person you want living in the apartment upstairs. But he can't help himself...he is inspired.

I admit that occasionally, out of nowhere, the Inspiration Fairy socks you in the gut with a full-grown idea so damned good it almost lifts you right off the barstool. But if you intend to make a living from your ideas, and you only sit down to work when that happens, you'd better have a rich uncle or a back-up plan in something nice and stable like accounting or dog grooming.

Inspiration (for me, anyhow) is less like a lightning bolt than like being constantly pecked by a flock of unfocused chickens. Here a peck, there a peck, until the combined pecking reaches critical mass and you can't take it any more and you scream, "Stop, chickens! Stop! Stop!"* and you sit down and draw the cartoon.

This can be every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.

The only way to avoid going mad, which usually happens to artists in movies shortly after the Pointer Sisters stop singing, is to learn to love your chickens. Think of the pecking as their way of alerting you to little details that will move you along, by slow inches, towards something good and whole and new.

And now I want to show you some drawings of old wedding dresses.

That sounds like a non sequitur, I know, but the old wedding dresses were inspiring. Everything you've just read was intended to lead up to them. But then I introduced the chicken motif, and it hasn't come out where I thought it would, and it's almost dinner time so I'm not going back and rewriting it. Sorry.

Inspiration at the Chicago History Museum

This is my second year as a member of the Chicago History Museum, which not so long ago was the Chicago Historical Society. In the old incarnation, it was just as clubby and dusty as it sounds–mostly of interest to the people around here who have major streets named after them.

After a grand renovation and expansion, however, it has become one of my favorite places in the city. Along with a first-class permanent exhibit about the Great Fire of 1871 and several rooms of Lincolniana unmatched by anything at the Smithsonian, they have frequent and splendid shows of items from the textiles collection.

The latest is called "I Do! Chicago Ties the Knot," and it's a doozy. Wedding gear from the mid-19th century (when Chicago sprang, almost overnight, from the mud) to the present day, including bridal gowns, corsetry, going-away attire, and men's costumes–including a pair of matching tuxedos worn by a gay couple, thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and there's a perfectly preserved 120-year-old top tier from a wedding cake, just for good measure.

They don't allow photography in the exhibit, but I spent a fun afternoon there, sketchbook in hand, drawing interesting details under the puzzled eye of the guard.

Here are a few. I plan to go back soon and collect more.

I would write something about the chickens here if I could think of a good tie-in, but it's Thai delivery night and I want my panang curry.

*If it's near Christmas and so they happen to be French hens, I suppose you could scream "Arretez-vous, poulardes, s'il vous plaît!" If they're German chickens, I got nothing, but that almost never happens.

50 comments:

If they are German chickens then- Bitte aufhören, Hühner!That's a pretty apt description of all the mini-inspirations that beset one on a creative journey. I like to think that I snuffle them out, like a sexy truffle pig.

How cool is that?! Would you mind if I try a bit of embroidery with one of your sketches? I could use the practice and you have a sincerity of line I might be able to follow. Maybe after a glass of red.Thanks for infectious inspiration.

My late parental units retired to a little farm in the Ozarks. All their chickens learned that "SHAKE AND BAKE!", screamed somewhat off-key, meant BIG trouble if poultry behavior did not improve 100%.

And a silk crepe wedding dress with pearl beading from Marshall Field & Co.? Just more proof that Macy's never could compete with MF&Co. It's like Penney's trying to compete agains Saks or Nordstrom's.

I was inspired to look at the Chicago History Museum's web site and found they have photos of some of the I Do! items on Flickr:http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagohistory/sets/72157623651293166/detail/Very cool!

I laughed out loud at the chicken reference! Mine (the real ones) tend to cluck and whine at me (yes, chickens whine...especially spoiled ones hoping for treats) when they see me in the window or out in the yard. We only have one that pecks; ironically, her name is Lovey.

Toss your metaphorical hens some metaphorical grapes and they'll love you for life :)

Chickens, eh. I have a little pad that I sketch on when I have an idea for a shape I'd like to make, but most of these don't make it to the room with the yarn in it. I have to get better about using my inspiration when it comes around. Right now the only inspiration that sees fruition is ice cream.

Being pecked by the chickens of inspiration? Inspiration tends to affect me like a swarm of mosquitos. Here a sting, there a sting. Swat and swear and carry on until the itching becomes so unbearable that I finally stop what I'm doing and indulge in an orgy of scratching. And ohhhh, the bliss of a well-scratched itch!

I'm going to be in Chicago all by my lonesome for 2 whole weeks and the Chicago History Museum just hit the top of the must see list! Thanks, Franklin! Anyone know of a friendly yarn shop in the Schaumburg/Elk Grove Village area?

The Inspiration Fairy...ha! Reminds me of writing papers, back in the day. I'd procrastinate until the last possible moment, then sit down and go through something I can't even describe...akin to childbirth or maybe vomiting...in which said paper would start off in one direction & then end hours later with perfectly developed arguments arriving at something I never saw coming. With lots of discarded scraps along the way.

My mother was a composer. She went through the exact same process. If nobody ever commissioned her works, she'd never have written a thing. The idea of ever writing a paper again...well, I hope it never comes up.

That said, I also know people who live for the creative process...it's like an ongoing compulsion for them. Lucky people. But that doesn't guarantee excellence, I can tell you that!

"Ihr verrueckten Huehner, aufhoeren!" would be something, our mum would call out to us two wet hen sisters, when we were pecking at her too much, so maybe there is your german utterance for the mad chickens pecking at you :-)

I love this idea of taking pictures at the museum.Would have done the same, and will do over and over again when in museums.The faces, and wafting over words from conversations of people watching me do it are priceless.

I was looking forward to handing you a sentence to call the German hens, but unfortunately, there have already been others before me.I second nana's proposition: "verrückte Hühner" - crazy hens are the perfect way to address your chickens of inspiration.

By the way, I love the "path of beading" on the shoulder capelet and the last sketch of the ornament on the silk lace overskirt. And I, too, thought that the brocade pattern looks like breasts.

I heard one of the curators at a costume symposium at the Met talk about this exhibit -- aren't the dresses amazing! The detail and the workmanship on the dresses is also so amazing. I've mounted so many dresses of this type, and I am always blown away.

I am struck by the similarity of the suspenders monogram to that of painter Thomas Moran. He became so identified with his paintings of Yellowstone National Park, that he adopted 'Yellowstone' as his middle name. http://www.nga.gov/feature/moran/index.shtmNo, I don't have an encyclopedic memory - I just saw a short documentary about him the other night on PBS, and mentally noted the clever way he incorporated the 'Y' into his monogram.

You know what's worse than chickens pecking at you? When they stare at you! It's the creepiest thing. A friend of mine has a pack of chickens in her back yard here in Yonkers (don't ask) and they always walk up to you and just stare. My ravelry icon is a photo of one of them staring at me (karent if you want to get stared at too.)

I love your sketches! And I too noticed the sheep face. I have nine hens in my back garden. All different personalities! Just a couple are annoying. I watch them for inspiration and wind down from my office job. Great eggs too.

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